


In the Moonlight

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Series: Longing and Belonging [3]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: F/M, Faerie AU, Magic AU, Mermaid Allison, Werewolf Seth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 07:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13565940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: She ran through the forest, thin branches whipping at her face and brambles and rocks tearing at her vulnerable feet. She knew the bloody footprints she left in her wake would only drive the beast behind her into a greater frenzy but she could not stop to cover her wounds. All she had were tattered shreds of her clothing anyway. She could not sacrifice much more without giving up on modesty.The full moon drifted across the sky above her, drenching every stone and leaf before her in milk-white brilliance. She knew if she turned, the same light that transformed the forest floor would glint off cruel fangs dripping gobs of saliva and unforgiving claws. She wondered if her blood would also be beautiful in the moonlight.Long before they became Foxes, a werewolf and a mermaid met under the light of a full moon.





	In the Moonlight

She ran through the forest, thin branches whipping at her face and brambles and rocks tearing at her vulnerable feet. She knew the bloody footprints she left in her wake would only drive the beast behind her into a greater frenzy but she could not stop to cover her wounds. All she had were tattered shreds of her clothing anyway. She could not sacrifice much more without giving up on modesty.

The full moon drifted across the sky above her, drenching every stone and leaf before her in milk-white brilliance. She knew if she turned, the same light that transformed the forest floor would glint off cruel fangs dripping gobs of saliva and unforgiving claws. She wondered if her blood would also be beautiful in the moonlight. 

She could feel the magic coursing through her blood, the call of the sea so strong she could almost smell the salt, but she was miles from the ocean and her magic had nowhere to go without water to channel it.

At last, just as she reached the point where her legs could carry her no longer, she caught the scent of a small pond, it’s water brackish and choked with leaves. The princess she had been would never have deigned to set foot in it but the wanderer she had become could feel nothing but relief that there was water, glorious water.

She dove in head first and the pain of her tail’s transformation after being locked into human legs for so long ripped through her body and just a little bit of salt water leaked to mingle with the fresh.

She surfaced to face the creature on the bank. He had not yet followed her into the water but he crouched there, claws ripping up the dirt, every muscle taut and quivering, mouth frozen open in a snarl.

She raised one hand, water dripping like pearls from her fingers, and tried to attack. A column of water rose a few inches from the surface before dropping back to the lake. Her magic was there, reveling in the power of the full moon but it was as locked away as her tail had been, only a trickle escaping, not enough to deter the monster as it sprung.

She opened her mouth and began to sing, even as the claws reached her. She flinched as yet more blood filled the water around them but she did not stop her song. They sunk slowly to the bottom of the pool but the creature no longer fought. She kept singing. She could drown him now, this monster, if she only kept singing. The magic in her voice would steal his will. He wouldn’t even fight as water rushed into his lungs and his eyes dulled in death.

But she looked at him and saw the man underneath the monster and she couldn’t do it. She too was a creature whose true nature was only revealed under the light of the full moon and she suspected they had a similar understanding of loneliness. She changed her song just enough that he began to swim and eventually hoisted himself out on the bank and then sat there, panting, tongue out like a dog. She changed her song again, this time a lullaby and she watched as his eyes closed and he sprawled out in the mud at the water’s edge. She didn’t stop singing until she felt the magic float out of her fingertips and the aching loss as her tail reformed into two tired legs. The man on the bank did not wake, even as his body went through an agonizing transformation. She could have left him. She should have left him. But he looked so vulnerable now without his fangs and claws. He shivered with the loss of his thick fur coat. She was cold too, not just from being wet and scantily clad in the early dawn, but her magic was shoved down deep, no longer strong enough to leak through the heavy wardings her parents had cast when they told her she was no longer their daughter.

So she lay down on the bank and curled up beside the naked stranger and found her own way into sleep.

* * *

She woke to a frantic voice long before she was ready to open her eyes.

“Oh shit, are you alive?” a voice, rough from growling, accompanied the quick shake of her shoulders.

She gave up on sleep and glared up at the man in front of her. He was tall. He probably had a good six inches on her and his head was covered in a thick fuzz cut ruthlessly short. Bright green eyes stared out of his smooth mahogany face.

“I’m not dead, just sleeping,” she complained.

A profound relief flashed through his eyes before anger dropped in front of it like a curtain. “The hell are you doing sleeping there then? Are you trying to get killed?”

“I can handle myself,” she said loftily. “You’re welcome by the way. It was a cold night.”

“You were lucky. That’s all. What if you’d found me before I…” he trailed off and stood.

“Before you changed?” Allison stood straight and tall in front of him and looked him in the eye, unflinching. She gestured to her collarbone where three red slashes were already fading to the silver of old scar tissue. “I did. And I kept you from doing anything foolish. So like I said, you’re welcome.”

He reached out a clumsy hand and pressed calloused fingers to her wounds. “This...was me?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“And you didn’t run?” he asked, still clinging to her shoulder.

“No, not in the end,” she replied.

“You should. You have until the moon rises again to get away from me. If we go in opposite directions, I should lose your scent,” he glared at her.

“I have a better idea,” she said. “You hate this, don’t you? Waking up in weird places, never knowing whose blood you’re wearing, never knowing what fresh sins blacken your soul.”

Something dark and dangerous flares in his eyes but he chokes it down and allows himself one small nod.

“And if I had a way to change it?” she asked.

He just looks at her, hope and fear warring for dominance in his grass green eyes. 

“Then trust me,” she said. “Stay with me and I’ll keep you in check.”

And he wanted to accept. She could see the longing in every inch of him. “What do you get out of this? Your own little freak on a leash?”

She took his hand and raised it to her temple. The only remnants of her past live there in those few scales she never loses. “I am alone,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“I’m going to hurt you,” he said, but she can see him weakening.

“I am made of stronger stuff,” she said. “But you can try. My name is Allison. What’s yours?”

He held out for another second or two before he gave in. “Bri...Seth. My name is Seth.”


End file.
